63D. Pretoria's nation: Abbr.: RSA. Republic of South Africa. South Africa has three capital cities: Cape Town, the largest of the three, is the legislative capital; Pretoria is the administrative capital; and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. I wonder why.

Good Morning, CC and all. I loved this Monday puzzle. We haven't seen an A-E-I-O-U puzzle in a long time. Lately, I have been finding Monday puzzles a bit of a challenge, and this was no exception. Not complaining, though.

I thought of Warren when I filled in TOOL SET (raise a hand for having first filling in Tool KIT.)

Seems like forever since I have been around. I wasn't thinking I would take such a hiatus but we have had a two week spring break here, and even the time I was home I was so busy I could barely do the puzzle, much less comment on it.

This was a great Monday theme. I thought it a little harder than usual. I timed myself at about 12 minutes which would be unusually long for a Monday. That almost makes it more enjoyable for me as I like at least a little challenge when I am doing my puzzles.

The city is pretty excited about the Twins home opener today. Hope the weather holds out. We have tickets for Sunday's game and I cannot wait to see them play in the new stadium. They are starting out great this year.

Back to the grind. I fear the busyness will not stop until after graduation, with baseball starting, parties to plan, college to sign up for and the normal spring activities. Hope everyone has a great day.

Bill G,Hey, a right moment for the Lefty and the whole country! As for Tiger's interview, he was just being his old self, cold & dismissive, no more, no less, esp if you pay attention to his previous pre or post game interviews.

A perfect Monday puzzle; fresh clues, 5 theme answers, and more Gs than an old episode of Leave It To Beaver . I also had to grin at DEADEYE which was another wonderful book, and a cartoon character from my childhood.

The interview I was referring to was the one with Peter Kostis. My rant was prompted by the fact that Tiger not once thanked the Masters hosts for inviting him (it is an invitational, after all) or showed much interest in anything but himself. It would have been polite to comment on the great condition of the course, the pleasure of playing with his many friends, appreciation for his pairing mate, Choi, etc., etc.

Good morning and thanks for all the anniversary wishes and for repeating our recent photo!

The amazing thing about that train ride 39 years ago is that he had been trying to hitch-hike out of Granada for three days before that, and that was the fourth day when I was leaving and he gave up and took the train to Alicante. So it was meant to be.

As all have said it was an easy Monday. But that didn't stop me from being unable to parse A SNAP. I wondered what AS NAP was but let it be. Due to perp fills, I also didn't even notice either STUDENT or SOPS.

I started with KIT for SET too. Set sounds like a child's toy rather than a tool kit. I missed the vowel progression, just thinking it was a different -ggy word each time. I nailed ARUBA this time, unlike its last appearance.

After filling in leash, mata and etch, I decided to do all the "downs" 1st which was fun for a change.When I got to Aruba I kept thinking of that poor family whose daughter was killed there, and nobody has been arrested.

Fav clues: coin collector?, and corn site. I read Snake River state as Snake River street which confused me. d'oh!

When we drove thru Pretoria last fall (their spring) all the Jacaranda trees were in bloom, just like this. Beautiful!

Nice work, Argyle, as usual. I put 'toolbox' for 'toolkit' and also didn't cotton onto 'a snap' until a last check. Caught the 'gg' theme with 'PeggySue' but I never got the vowel progression until your blog. I'm lucky to get the theme without all the clever inner workings! In fact, most days, I'm lucky to get all the words! But I'm improving!

Good morning everyone, and happy anniversary to Kazie.I just got caught up on Sunday's comments. Enjoyed the Neil Young discussion. Put me in the Neil Young fan club. Windhover, a concert film, "Neil Young Trunk Show," directed by Jonathan Demme, is out in limited release, and is supposed to be on DVD by the end of the year. Demme also directed "Heart of Gold," and supposedly will be doing a third Young film. Oh, enjoyed the crossword too!

This was a pretty straight forward puzzle today. I caught onto the theme with Peggy Sue so knew the next theme answer would be “iggy” something, which coincidentally was my favorite clue. I didn’t care for “most sickly” – illest either, Carol. I also wouldn’t have gotten Cyd Charrisse without the perps filling it in. Kazie, happy anniversary on the day you two met. Now I am curious how things progressed from there.

Today’s riddle: A word I know, six letters it contains…..subtract just one and twelve remains.

Jeannie,Twelve hour train ride (Spanish trains took a lot of side trips in those days), arrived at the coast around midnight. Got a pension room (only one left, or so they said), one bed with bad springs, spent the night clinging to the sides. Oranges on the beach next morning, explored the fort, and then continued traveling together up the east coast via Valencia and Barcelona to Arenis de Mar, where he had some friends he wanted me to meet. I continued on to Montpellier where I worked as English assistant, he joined me there a couple of weeks later. The magic survived, and after he went on to Italy and I finished up the school year, we met again in Munich, then spent two weeks hitching through the Black Forest before splitting to head home. I split my intended time on each US coast to fit a week in Wisconsin and meet his family. He followed me to Oz five months later and we married in September '72.

Thanks for all the additional congratulations, everyone. Now you all know most of the story.

I forgot to mention that "ignite" paralleling "go get 'em" and "erotica" was interesting.

And thank you, C.C. I enjoyed playing around with those words; surely a sign of my crosswordese mentality!

Also, my daughter became enamored of Princess Leia in "Return of the Jedi" when it premiered, so for the next two years she insisted on wearing her long hair in the ring buns and for Halloween that year I made her the costume as well. Nice memories.

23D Snake River st -- there are rivers of that name in several states, including Idaho, Minnesota, Washington, Wyoming, Nebraska. I drove the length of Nebraska on my way to visit my sister, then living in Omaha. The I-80 crosses the Snake several times.

50D -- What gams, indeed! She made superb use of them in "Singing in the Rain", my favorite movie.

to JD: I find the down words easier than the across words. I work cross and down together, so they provide a check on each other.

WH, Liz, Argyle and any other Youngies, No problem with Neil Young's political or charitable views....if he just wouldn't sing about them! :o) It's his quavery, strained, slightly off-key tenor that is like fingernails on a blackboard to me.

First of all, for a Monday, I did way too much erasing.Initially, I skittered around and didn't follow any particular pattern.My 'illest' connection, or lack thereof, was 'coin collector.' I was working in fills and passed 'coin collector' a few times. I caught myself entertaining the possibility of 'philatelist, which is wrong anyway, as that refers to stamp collecting.' I looked at that p and lots of spaces and must admit, I was humbled by 'piggy bank!' John Lampkin, you pulled a fast one on me! Good job!Here is a coin and a stamp, too. Coin gave me the mental segue to stamp so I will share this. My husband and I inherited a stamp collection and it is really fascinating. I recall that many of the stamps were dated from WWII years. PHILATELISTNUMISMATIC

@tfrank, 'A walk in the park Monday puzzle,' or a 'carriage outing?' (62A)...ha ha, you have a good day and week, too! Everybody else too,K?

No one can deny the talent of Bob Dylan, but not for singing. You can here the bad singing or the wonderful words. Like these puzzles, you have to listen.

It reminds me of the husband who seeking to get closer to his wife and enhance his love life, listened to the instructor declare, "it is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other."

The instructor then addressed the men, 'Can you name and describe your wife's favorite flower?'

He leaned over, touched his wife's arm tenderly , andwhispered,

'Gold Medal-All-Purpose, isn't it?'

And thus began his life of celibacy..........

Frenchy:

Good to see you, we are so quiet, we cannot even sustain a good argument

Hello All--A great Monday puzzle. I enjoyed the vowel progression and got the theme after the first two answers. I hardly slowed down until everything was written in.

JD I do the across and downs together as that gives me a check or the beginning letter of the next word, especially if there is a possibility of two answers that will fit.

My one problem today was with tool kit. I put in tool box and that wouldn't fit. I see others had the same problem. Sometimes I think that I'm really off, then find that others did the same thing. That validates my thinking.

I had to leave rather early today, so didn't get to read the blog until this evening. The rain has been falling here--very hard at times for the better part of two days. It is also COLD for April. I'm ready for some warm spring weather.

Kazie, Happy Anniversay of the day you met. May the next 38 years be as memorable.

The news just commented on our Peregrine falcon chicks. There are three and this is the third year that Clara has raised chicks on a ledge of our San Jose City Hall. She has had two different mates during that time. The cam keeps an eye on the chicks and our local College/City library has a telescope set up on the 6th or 7th floor to observe up close.

Kazie, thank you for sharing the "rest of the story". I am thinking you left off some parts that is your decision. Very romantic story and well told. In the late 60's early 70's I don't think it was as chaste as you posted. None the less, Kudos to you.

Lemonade, I guess my personal preference is for the gravelly baritone, rather than the quavery tenor. Dylan did have the courtesy to speak-sing a lot of his earlier songs. I was a huge Dylan fan from 1963 to the late 70's, less so as time went on. My musical taste changed and his music lost its relevance for me.

Dylan has had a demonstrable impact on history that Neil Young has not. The music, poetry and singibility(sp?) of "Blowin' In The Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" marshaled a generation of Americans and gave voice to their concerns about the policies of their government in Vietnam.

Maybe it is just N.Y.'s bad luck that he was a few years later and spent too much time with Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y, so there was no timely anthem for the youth of America.

But then art is subjective. There are people out there who think Kanye West is the most talented singer ever. Auto-Tune, anyone?